Power transfer with an open dif

[Cavi Mike]

We've all done peg-leg, open-dif, one-wheel-peel burnouts before. Today I'm going to ask you this:
Which wheel is transferring more power to the ground?

After a few responses I will then tell you why I started this thread and it's not because I don't know the answer.

[waltbabyluv]

my answer is both????

[crazybrew609]

your non spinning wheel

[bennyfizzle]

uh, whichever one has the least amount of traction will spin up

Wtf itt

[mikecentola]

Yeah open diff should transfer most of the power to the wheel with the least amount of traction, but if I understand your question correctly, it is sort of a trick. The non-spinning wheel is putting the most power to the ground, since it is non-spinning. I don't know I could be way off but thats how I thought of it.

[19Cutlass94]

To his question which tire is tranferring more power to the ground, it would be the spinning wheel. One sits and does nothing and the other spins. And since it takes power to spin the wheels. This is an open diff. Even though there is a drive wheel in an open diff. as strange as that sounds.

[xceebeex]

There is an even torque split. The tire with the least amount of traction will appear to be getting the most power because of the lack of resistance, but since it takes very little torque to spin a wheel with very little resistance, that means very little goes to the one tire that does have resistance.

[Cavi Mike]

The answer is neither: both tires transmit the same power to the ground. It's just the spinning tire that's burning off the excess power in the form of friction. I've gotten into many heated debates over this and I decided I needed to find out how I could prove that I was right. I asked the question on The Mythbusters Forum

I was called all sorts of names basically telling me I didn't know anything about anything and only 2 people in the thread actually took the time to analyze it and after doing so, they came up with my conclusion. You'll notice the thread is under moderation right now so I'm assuming we'll be seeing this myth on the show eventually.

I suggested using a drive-on alignment lift since it has bearing plates. Tie the car down like it's on a dyno, drive wheels on the bearing plates and attach the plates to scales(like they used when they tested the myth: Does a fwd car have more traction in reverse?).

It was funny how stupid some of their responses were including all of their formulas and such, trying to make me feel stupid but I was having the last laugh every time.

[mikecentola]

wow very interesting!

[xceebeex]

Originally Posted by Cavi Mike

The answer is neither: both tires transmit the same power to the ground. It's just the spinning tire that's burning off the excess power in the form of friction. I've gotten into many heated debates over this and I decided I needed to find out how I could prove that I was right. I asked the question on The Mythbusters Forum

See my answer above. Thats pretty much what I said.